Chapter 107
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: The Returnee - [2]
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"Time to head back to Korea, don't you think?"
When I said that, Kang Jun-chi didn't agree right away. He hesitated.
"Right now?"
I wondered what was up with him, and sure enough, his attitude suddenly shifted. He started rambling on about things completely different from before.
Today he was a bit tired and didn't feel like moving, or there was no rush anyway...
It was ridiculous when he even said out of the blue that heading back recklessly might be dangerous.
After dragging things out with all sorts of nonsense, Kang Jun-chi tossed out the question casually.
"Come to think of it, how's Seoul been since I left? Same as always?"
He tried to play it off like he was asking indifferently, as if it had just occurred to him, but I saw right through it.
How's Korea been since he left? No way he hadn't even imagined the Behemoth incident.
No, that couldn't be. There was no chance he hadn't anticipated it.
Unlike me with my prophet's intuition, Kang Jun-chi was the type to jump to baseless conclusions, but he wasn't a complete idiot.
There was no way he didn't know that Behemoth would emerge once he left. During the bus protests, hadn't he seen it with his own eyes crawling out of the gate just hours after he departed Seoul?
So why was he asking now?
Pretending he had no idea about the situation in Seoul, putting on an act with a straight face. But why?
To dodge responsibility for what he'd foreseen after his departure. He was acting like he had no clue about the aftermath.
And in that moment, I was certain of one thing.
Kang Jun-chi's claim that he was lost and couldn't return was pure bullshit.
I could piece together what had happened after he entered the gate and crossed over to Sword World.
At first, rage had clouded his judgment, so he'd fled as far as possible, basically saying screw it all.
But once his anger cooled, he'd realized the consequences of his flight were too much to handle.
Assuming Behemoth had already reduced Seoul to rubble, he couldn't bring himself to return to Korea and had hunkered down here instead.
And it was easy to imagine he'd been waiting for someone from Korea to come looking for him first. To gauge the reaction of the Korean delegation and decide if it was safe to come back. And also, so that instead of him groveling in apology, Korea would be the one begging...
Kang Jun-chi might be the epitome of a petty everyman, but everymen could be more shameless and cowardly than anyone.
In this situation, I couldn't reveal that I'd seen through his intentions and deliver a cutting blow. That wasn't why I'd come.
"The situation in Seoul? It's bad."
"How bad?"
I told him everything without holding back, everything I'd seen and heard. The state of Seoul, the dead—all of it.
As I spoke, I could see the muscles in Kang Jun-chi's face tightening.
"Ah... really? That bad..."
Looking at his blood-drained face, I wondered if this was an act too. Pretending he hadn't expected it?
No, this time it didn't seem like acting. He genuinely looked shocked.
He must have anticipated Seoul's devastation but not to this extent. Or even if he had, hearing it firsthand hit hard.
"So... is it okay for me to just go back to Korea like this?"
I shot back at his question.
"What's stopping you?"
"Public opinion..."
"Public opinion? Why the hell do you care about that, Kang Jun-chi?"
I snorted derisively.
As he stared at me, I kept going.
"Your abilities weren't granted through some democratic process. They weren't funded by taxpayers' money. They didn't come from a majority vote or a survey. You awakened on your own... so why care about public opinion?"
"Hm..."
"As an Awakener, Koreans have no right to demand anything from you. Whether you leave or stay put, no one has the right to ask anything of you. And do they have the power to force their demands? Not a chance."
This wasn't just flattery for Kang Jun-chi's ears—it was the honest truth.
Who had the authority to hold this man accountable?
Who could claim he had any obligations?
Even if he did have obligations, if no one could enforce them, they might as well not exist.
At the same time, I was still pissed about his decision that day. That was the truth too.
That day, Kang Jun-chi shouldn't have just left Korea out of anger. He should've torn apart the National Assembly and the government, every last one.
And if he absolutely had to leave, he should've at least tipped off me and his other contacts. But no, he'd just vanished. And countless lives were lost as a result.
Of course, I kept that thought to myself.
I had no power to force Kang Jun-chi either. Which meant he didn't have to listen to me any more than he did to other Koreans.
"Why worry about public opinion? There's zero need."
I said it, but Kang Jun-chi still seemed hung up on it.
"Still... what's the reaction from Koreans right now? They're not calling to catch that bastard Kang Jun-chi and kill him or something...?"
"Some might be. But most are hoping you'll come back ASAP. You know those banishment stories popular in Japan? Something like that..."
I could feel him listening intently. I continued.
"The government's already explained in detail why you left. They admitted to the wiretapping and all that. So people might blame the government more than you..."
This was probably what Kang Jun-chi wanted to hear. And soon after, we were able to set off for Korea.
We three boarded the cargo lift that Kang Jun-chi had used as an elevator while staying underground—which seemed to serve as a means of transport in Sword World.
"Hold on tight to the railing. I'll put up a force field structure around it, but if my concentration slips, it'll vanish instantly. So just in case..."
Kang Jun-chi rattled off warnings, then activated the cargo lift we were on.
Through the force field, he propelled us all forward at nearly invisible speeds.
And with plenty of spare focus, he kept chatting.
"Should I slow down? It's a view you might not see again, so you could take in the sights..."
I shook my head.
"No need."
There wasn't much to see in Sword World's landscape anyway. Just endless desert or jungle.
Having traveled around firsthand, the contents within those backdrops were underwhelming too.
"We wandered all over the past two months, and there was really nothing to see. It would've been less boring if monsters had shown up, but all we saw were goblins. Deathclaws popped up occasionally, but that was it. I figured since it's the monsters' homeworld, we'd see all sorts of beasts hunters never encounter... but nope."
Baek Dam-bi was spot on.
The density of life in Sword World was low. The number and variety of creatures in any given area were ridiculously sparse.
I already knew why.
Imagine a farmer.
Not a modern one with machinery and chemical fertilizers, but a pre-modern farmer living off the land.
This farmer raises dozens of water buffalo. He doesn't buy feed; he drives the herd into the forest to graze on whatever grows there.
Once they're fed, he gathers fallen leaves and branches from the forest and takes them home. He burns them into ash and spreads it on his fields as fertilizer.
It seems perfectly harmonious with nature, but nature might disagree.
This farmer is slowly but surely destroying the forest.
When the buffalo devour the grass and exit the forest to defecate outside, all those nutrients are drained away. Same when the farmer hauls out leaves and branches to make fertilizer—nutrients that should've decomposed back into the soil are removed.
Thus, everything that should've been consumed by forest life or recycled into the soil flows outward.
A forest like that might look lush green on the surface, but it gradually loses its nutrients and regenerative power.
You don't need to clear land for a golf course or douse it in harsh chemicals to ruin a forest from within.
That's exactly what the monsters of Sword World have been doing for thousands, even tens of thousands of years. Killing the land's vitality and regenerative power.
Sword World's predators are freakishly fast and powerful. Their hunting prowess exterminates all prey in the surroundings.
Once the prey vanishes, the predators should die too—but instead, Sword World's monsters enter gates to postpone death.
And they don't return their bodily nutrients to nature. Even in death, their bodies don't decay inside the gates; they just endure.
Over eons, only predators survive and accumulate inside the gates.
Thus, Sword World became a place even its mighty monsters struggle to live in. There are billions of horrors lurking in the gates—terrifying even to Earth's billions—but on Sword World's surface, only tiny critters and puny goblins roam.
That's why Behemoth is a legend here. It probably never dared venture out; the environment was too harsh.
Given Behemoth's size, its nutrient demands must be immense. In Sword World's barrenness, how could it even hunt enough to survive?
At best, the human settlement with ten thousand souls had the Giant King to match its class, so Behemoth had no choice but to rot away in a gate for millennia.
The more you think about monsters, the more they're just abhorrent pests.
Not just harming people, but laying waste to the very land they live on...
Which is why hunters who slay monsters are the greatest profession in human history, and unparalleled Awakeners among them are the greatest individuals in history.
How much longer did we fly?
Down below, I spotted people waving.
Koreans. The ones who'd crossed the gate to search for Kang Jun-chi.
"Ah! Kim Geuk! And..."
Sword World and Earth's coordinates align 1:1. Moving here means moving the same distance there.
And after flying this far, Korea wasn't distant anymore.
The realization didn't bring joy.
Regret... thick regret filled my mind in that instant.
A few hours later, emerging from the gate, it was indeed Korea.
Collapsed buildings around us, roads cracked and buckled hideously—yep, Seoul.
Kang Jun-chi's eyes shook violently as he looked around.
"What the hell is this...?"
Seeing it firsthand hit harder, it seemed.
But the turmoil in his expression and voice vanished the next moment. His face turned cold.
Officials must have been notified ahead and were waiting. They rushed toward us panting.
"Jun-chi! You're back!"
"Kim Geuk, Baek Dam-bi? You guys did amazing!"
Meanwhile, Kang Jun-chi looked burdened for a moment under the stares of passing civilians and the gathered officials, but soon brazenly demanded.
"Lend me your phone."
He took the smartphone from an official and fiddled with it for a while.
The next instant, everyone flinched in shock. Kang Jun-chi started cursing mid-use.
"What the fuck?"
As the officials froze, he bellowed.
"Who deleted the video I uploaded before leaving? I wanted to check the comments, and it's gone! Didn't I say I'd kill everyone if anyone touched my videos?"
The officials kept bowing and stammering apologies, while Kang Jun-chi just kept growling.
Why was he doing that now? He'd seemed shocked just moments ago...
Ah, the shameless outrage tactic.
Seeing him pull that right after returning made it clear how massive his guilt was.
This guy vented his usual stress by filming smackdown videos. Seeing Seoul's ruins must've triggered unbearable guilt, so he was yelling his head off to blow off the guilt and the stress from it.
I shared some of his negative emotions too.
Seoul might be the vile pretender to Korea's capital, but this ruined sight was hard to take satisfaction in.
The whole city felt dark.
Not just the mood—the city was literally dark.
Way too many buildings without lights. Behemoth smashed buildings, not power plants, so why was it like this?
It hadn't been two months since Seoul lost power entirely; it was probably economic fallout from the devastation. Businesses and companies shuttered since then weren't few.
Soon, news of our arrival spread across Korea.
Baek Dam-bi and I were swarmed by reporters fielding questions.
To the one asking how we'd convinced Kang Jun-chi, I replied.
"He really didn't want to come back to Korea. Said he'd rather chill in peaceful Sword World than live under constant surveillance and wiretapping paranoia."
This wasn't me inflating my role with lies; we'd coordinated with Kang Jun-chi beforehand. He wouldn't want it known he was desperate to return.
"No matter how much he hated Korea, I begged him earnestly, thinking of our friends and contacts there."
As I said that, reporters and nearby officials clapped in unison. Clap clap clap...
I took it in stride, while Baek Dam-bi looked embarrassed yet pleased.
We fielded more questions after that.
Mostly about Kang Jun-chi, but some reporters showed interest in our Sword World trip too.
"What was Sword World like?"
At the question, Baek Dam-bi squeezed her eyes shut then open before answering.
"Awful... just too awful."
At the same time, I grinned and replied.
"Pretty cool place, actually? Totally awesome!"